The present disclosure relates generally to media pick and separation systems that are used in devices such as printers, copiers, scanners, facsimile machines and the like. These types of image-forming or image scanning devices typically include a media feeding mechanism that supplies individual sheets of print media (e.g. paper) onto which images are formed or from which images are scanned. Many such devices include a tray that stores an input stack of sheets of media, and a pick mechanism is used to pick the top sheet off of the input stack and advance the sheet to the feeding mechanism.
Many automatic document feeder systems are designed to pick the sheets in the input tray in a discrete manner. That is, the system picks the top sheet off of the stack and starts to feed that sheet into the paper path. Once the leading edge of the sheet trips a flag or sensor, the system changes modes to stop attempting to pick another sheet, and simply feeds this one sheet forward. This type of system produces a relatively large gap between the sheets. A large gap between sheets translates into lower throughput (fewer pages per minute) for the system.